Shooting a golf ball in flight

J

Joe Kocsis

Well-known member
Anyone one shot a golf ball in flight? Any suggestions on getting PGA style shots? We're using a ball that only travels about 50-75 yards.. Shooting on an HVX...

Tx.

Joe
 
You can fake a shot directly behind the ball by embedding a bit of a power drill in a golf ball and then using the drill to spin the ball in front of the camera.
 
Depending on the kind of shot you need, you would be best to make some kind of rig that was very reliable and repeatable, that always sends the ball in the same direction every time. It only needs to be abit of hotwheels track and a ladder, just something that means that every time the ball goes the same way. This way you can frame up in the exact spot to catch the ball, and you dont have to spend hours playing around trying to get the perfect shot.
 
Interesting thoughts above.. However.. We're need the shot to be continuous from hit to landing.. We want people to know that the shots being made are not fake... Just wondering if there was any special technique that people have used to track an actual ball in flight. The flight will be completely random, as the people shooting the balls are not pros...

We're going to do some tests on Monday..
 
Thats going to be hard. I think a lot of people would attach a ball to the camera with a blue/green support, and then fly the camera on a steadicam/jib and paint the support out in post.

What your trying to do is kind of a longshot (see what I did there?!)
 
To get the shots reliably - you need a pro camera, a pro tripod and a pro operator.

You wont see many handicams covering golf
 
I honestly think the most practical and visually pleasing result would be a CG golf ball. It's an easy job for any VFX guy, a golf ball isn't too hard to replicate in 3D. ;) Simply shoot your golfer swinging off the tee with no ball, do your camera motion as if you were panning or tilting with the ball through the landing, motion track the shot and insert 3D golf ball.

If you really need to do this practically, simply ignore this post.
 
Joe Kocsis said:
Anyone one shot a golf ball in flight? Any suggestions on getting PGA style shots? We're using a ball that only travels about 50-75 yards.. Shooting on an HVX...

Tx.

Joe
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If you take a look at any broadcast of a PGA tourney you'll notice a lot of high angle wide shots, especially off of the tee box. With ball speeds in the triple digits, you'll need as much room in your frame as possible. You'll also notice that the camera person starts his/her pan forward (which ever way the golfer intends to hit the ball) during the golfers downswing which gives them a head start on the golf ball and again leaves a ton of room in the frame to track its flight. These camera operators definitely know a thing or two about flight trajectory, speed, and have the pleasure of working with pros who general hit the ball where they're supposed to... basically, they're predictable.

Now since you aren't working with pros, your golfers trajectories will obviously vary, but you do have one thing going for you. If you're using a ball that won't fly any farther than 75 yards, you won't have to deal with the high ball speeds and the ball should be easier to track. With that said, I wouldn't go anywhere near close ups... wide shots are your friend and if you have a hill or something higher than your golfer you could shoot from - use it. Anything you can do to limit your panning to left and right or up and down vs having to worry about both will make life that much easier. Lastly, Practice, practice, practice!

Hope that helps :-)
 
Um the way they do it at the golf channel is to make the viewfinder display negative- meaning the golf ball will be black and everything else will be bright white. This is how the networks do it.
 
Thanks for the replies.. Test shoots went well.. I can say that the onboard monitor is useless... The viewfinder was usable, but the ball gets lost quite fast since it's so tiny.... Using a combo of viewfinder and good feel for ball flight (aka: guesswork) the ball was quite trackable and very viewable on the final footage.. On the day of the shoot Ill have my BTLH80 and I'll think things will come out reasonably well for what we're trying to accomplish..

The invert idea is pretty interesting...

Tx..

Joe
 
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